1908 83 years of independance, warships

These stamps were only for sale for 3 days. Stamps with inverted center seem to exist.

The following information was kindly given to me by Jorge Gaj:

Two different kinds of forgeries of these stamps seems to be described in literature; The first one seems to have been made by Henri Goetz (Brussels, Belgium in 1919). The colour green in the genuine stamps is dark green, in these forgeries it is grey-green. Furthermore the impression is dull and the forward funnel is broken at the base. The water shows also different patterns from the genuine stamps.

A second forgery is also known in literature: the colour green is pale instead of dark green. The impression is dull and there are only four horizontal bands on the forward funnel (five in the genuine stamps). As in the previous forgery, the water shows a different pattern from the genuine stamps.

Personally, I have seen forgeries (all values in sheets of 6x3) of these stamps with cancel 'MONTEVIDEO 5 PM 8 MAR 1910 URUGUAY'. (I don't know if these are one of the two above forgeries).

Literature

Hoffmann, Robert Estudio de las falsificaciones de los sellos postales del Uruguay / Montevideo, Uruguay : Club Filatelico del Uruguay de Montevideo, 1948. 115 p. Text in Spanish: Study of the forgeries of the postage stamps of Uruguay. Includes errata.

2) a second book which has a section on forgeries of Uruguayan stamps is Bynof-Smith, H. Forged postage stamps of the Americas, excluding British Empire : illustrated reference manual Sydney, Australia : H. Bynof-Smith, c1991 206 p. Bibliography: p. 205-206. Pages 168 to 185 are dedicated to forgeries of Uruguayan stamps, including the 1908 warship forgery.